LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL

Thirty-year-old astronaut Vladimír Remek
orbits the Earth, and passengers on the new
Prague metro are fascinated by the op-art tiles
on its walls. Meanwhile, thousands of Czechs
and Slovaks train for the Spartakiada mass
synchronised gynnastics display. Unable to
travel, people become DIY enthusiasts at their
country cottages, where some furtively tune in
to the Voice of America. Martina Navrátilová
emigrates and becomes the first Czech to win
Wimbledon, and another émigré, the designer
Bořek Šípek, creates his first glass collection
for the company Driade.

1970 Jaromil Jireš films Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, and Petr Weigl makes
Radúz and Mahulena, with Magda Vašáryová as Mahulena.

1971 František
Venclovský is the first Czech to swim the English Channel. The first part of the
television serial Mr Tau is broadcast.

1972 Singer Vladimír Mišík releases
his album Chicken in a Watch.

1974 The first section of the Prague metro is
opened..

1976 Miloš Forman wins five Oscars for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s
Nest. Musicians from the legendary underground rock band The Plastic People
Of The Universe are jailed.

1977 On January 6, Charter 77 is published,
protesting against political oppression. The Igra company launches its toy plastic
figures. The reconstruction of the church at the Emmaus Monastery is completed.

1978 The young astronaut Vladimír Remek orbits the Earth. Oto Janeček’s New
Primer is judged the world’s most beautiful textbook in Nice. Martina Navrátilová
wins Wimbledon. The first part of the television serial The Hospital on the Edge of
Town is broadcast. Czech glass is a hit at an exhibition at the Corning Museum of
Glass in America.

1982 The first Czech test-tube baby is born.

1984 The poet
Jaroslav Seifert wins the Nobel Prize.

1985 Michal David sings his song Buds as
teenage girls exercise at the Spartakiada.

1987 The design group Atika and the
art group Tvrdohlaví (The Hard-Headed) are founded. Jan Švankmajer releases his
film Alice.

1988 President Francois Mitterand invites dissidents to breakfast at
the French Embassy. Cinemas screen the film The Prague Five.

1989 November
17 marks the start of the Velvet Revolution in Prague. Václav Havel is elected
president.